Undefeated Newtown High Plays For Green And White

NEWTOWN — Fans packed the bleachers and filled the adjoining hill at Blue and Gold Stadium for the first home football game at Newtown High School this season.

Expectations were high. This was a team that had played in the Class LL quarterfinals in 2012 and in the semifinals in 2011.

When the players ran onto the field the night of Sept. 20, they weren't wearing the customary Newtown blue and gold. They wore green and white, the colors of Sandy Hook Elementary School.

It was a team decision.

"No one will ever forget what happened," running back Cooper Gold said. "We wanted the community to look on more positive things, if even for a little while. Every time we've played a game, our motto has been: 'Try to put a smile on someone's face.'"

Newtown has done just that.

The team had won the season opener at Pomperaug-Southbury 26-7, then won the home opener against Bethel 22-14 and has not lost a game this season. At 11-0 and ranked No. 1 in Class LL and No. 3 in the Courant state ratings, the Nighthawks end their regular season at Masuk-Monroe Wednesday at 7 p.m. Then it's on to the playoffs, again.

On the back of those green-and-white jerseys were the words: "Stay Strong." On the front was a small memorial flourish between the words "Sandy" and "Hook."

There was a "26" on the sides of each helmet, for the number of students and adults killed at the school, and on the back of the helmet was a black ribbon next to another "26" and the words "SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEWTOWN, CT" around it. There also was a black ribbon with "Newtown, CT 12-14-12." The team still wears the helmets.

The theme of the halftime show at the home opener was "A Glimpse of the Future." Newtown youth football players and cheerleaders, dressed in green and white, and coaches were introduced as they walked onto the field.

"It was awesome," Newtown quarterback Drew Tarantino said. "The fans, the youth league players, everybody. That night we really played for the community and for everyone who came out."

Mike McNamara, president of the Newtown Nighthawks Football Association, a volunteer booster club, said the scene was "very emotional. There were tears, probably the most at halftime when the kids came out."

Newtown coach Steve George said none of his players lost a relative in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. He said assistant coaches Carl Paternoster and Bob Pattison and "probably 10 to 15 of our players" had gone to school there.

"What the team has done is great," McNamara said. "They've allowed us to focus on something positive ... even if it's only for the two hours in a game."

Leah Grace, a Newtown resident who readily admits not being a football fan and says she has not gone to a Newtown game, nonetheless is struck by what the team has done.

"Football has boosted the morale of the students and the community, and it's something for them to look forward to," said Grace, a music teacher and a band instructor at Whisconier Middle School in Brookfield. "There's a lot of pride. The community is trying to make everything positive. And I think [the success of the football team] just helps create a more positive attitude in the community with everything that has happened."

Junior wide receiver/safety/punter Julian Dunn said the crowds at Blue and Gold Stadium this season have been the largest he has seen.

"Being the punter, I'm on the field with other special team guys earlier than the rest of the team before kickoff," he said. "There are 15 to 20 fans there, putting down their blankets to get spots on the hill. And in the parking lot there are early tailgaters. That wasn't the case before this season.

"I can see the pride, how people have been uplifted. In school, more people ask me about the game or say good luck before a game. And even my school bus driver will say the same things."

George said his team "has extra motivation to give back to the community. There are a tremendous number of other people in Newtown who have helped out and given back. Football is one of those things hopefully that helps us all move on, to try to get back to normal."

Sports teams have a history of helping communities victimized by horrific events, and this area of the country has seen it after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001, and after the Boston Marathon bombings in April.

The Red Sox, of course, capped their season by going from last place in the American League East in 2012 to winning the World Series last month.

Newtown's goal is to win a title, too. Its first LL playoff game, a quarterfinal at home, is Dec. 3. The pairings will be released after the games of Thanksgiving Day.

Last season, Newtown lost 63-21 to Norwich Free Academy in a quarterfinal.

"It humbled me after we had beaten Masuk last year for the South-West Conference title," Tarantino said. "We felt on top of the world after Masuk. We definitely should have been more focused on NFA."